Here are a few lines from Jake introducing you to the recipe:

You may remember my Spinach and Chicken Lasagna Rolls from a while back and when I saw this latest recipe on Kitty’s Pintrest Foodies board I knew I had to give it a try. I decided to scale down the original recipe as it was only being made for myself. There are also a few ingredients I left out and I added mushrooms.

We hope you enjoy it!

Lasagna Cups

Adapted from Lauren’s Latest
Yield: Makes 6 Cups

Ingredients for Sauce:
6 oz of tomato paste
8 oz of tomato sauce
7 oz of diced tomatoes
1/2 lb of ground beef
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1/2 tsp of minced onion
1/2 tsp of basil
1/2 tsp of oregano

Ingredients for Cheese Filling:
5 oz of cooking creme
1/4 cup of Ricotta Cheese
3/4 cup of mozzarella (1/4 for toping)
1/4 cup of parm cheese
1 small egg

Directions:

1. Place the olive oil in a pan over medium heat and start browning the meat. Add a pinch of each of the spices (garlic powder, minced onion, basil and oregano). A few minutes before the meat is done add the mushrooms and continue to brown.
2. On another burner add the tomato sauce, paste and diced tomatoes to a pot. Bring to a simmer and add the rest of the spices you have left. Stir from time to time. Once meat is done add to the sauce and continue on low heat for about 30 mins.
3. During this time prepare your pot of water for your lasagna noodles. Cook as per the directions on the box. You will need one noodle for each cup. So in this case 6. I did throw in an extra one just in case one broke or something. A really good tip I got from Lauren’s Latest is to use a greased cookie sheet to lay them out once they are cooked and waiting to be used.
4. Now for the cheese filling. Stir all of those ingredients except ¼ cup of the mozzarella for adding at the very end. This filling includes a the new product called Philadelphia Italian Herb & Cheese Cooking Cream (http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/Pages/default.aspx).
5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Using parchment line each section of a jumbo muffin tin. They are a little tricky to get to stay in but you can work them in with your fingers. Plus the pasta will push them down when added. Take each noodle and cut 2-3 inches off of one end and set that aside. You will need them. Line each section of the tin with 1 lasagna noodle. Make sure to over lap it slightly so it will hold the sauce and filling well. Push one of the 2-3 inch cut offs into the bottom of each tin. Now take a table spoon and add some of the sauce, meat and mushrooms. Then add some of the cheese filling. Repeat this until your tins are just about full, ending with the cheese filling. Add a bit of the ¼ of mozzarella, we set aside, to eat of the tins to finish it off.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until all the cheese is melted and the edges of the noodle start to brown a little. To serve, pull out by the parchment paper and remove the paper when plating. Enjoy!

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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This week, Jake one of our Guest Foodies went to the Adirondack Community College Culinary Arts Working Restaurant. Here is the review for the amazing menu they prepared at Le’Bistrette.

My friends know I am a Foodie and know any chance I have to try out a new restaurant I am game. It’s always great to get recommendations to visit a place but it is even more exciting to receive an invite to join a friend. As we all know food and friends are a wonderful combination. Especially if the friend truly treasures the art of well prepared and presented food. One of those very friends told me about how his niece is part of the Culinary Arts program at Adirondack Community College and how he had visited their working restaurant. He had nothing but amazing things to say about it and then proceeded to invite me to join him on his next visit.

That trip came today and it was an awesome experience. ACCs Culinary Arts students open and run the restaurant for lunch on Wednesdays during the fall semester. It is a very intimate restaurant with limited seating, so reservations are almost always required. You step in from the grounds of the college campus and it’s like you have stepped into a classy uptown establishment. The students are going about each of their jobs, whether it be greeting new patrons as they come in the door or wait staff making sure everyone is comfortable and has what they need. Details matter, from the beautiful leather bound menus to the consistency of wait staff uniforms. This may be a training exercise and hands experience for the students but there are real patrons to serve. The students clearly take this very seriously and it was truly impressive.

My friend and I were given the added experience of enjoying lunch at the Chef’s Table located in the kitchen. It made the meal that much more exciting, while we watched as the chef’s prepared food and the wait staff whisked in and out to bring their tables their food. At times it seemed chaotic but watching the students work together to solve issues that arose was outstanding. In particular we were able to watch my friends niece, Emily Mosher work hard to keep order tickets organized and keep the food moving out of the kitchen on to the floor. Building the leadership qualities that will be all too important if she were to own her own restaurant one day. She and all of the others (I apologize I don’t know their names) did so well keeping their composure and working together to move things forward. Instructors were present but it was just in observation and tiny bits of guidance. Allowing for the students to run the whole show. While it was tough to carry on a conversation with my friend because of the noise level, as expected in a kitchen, there were times we just sat and observed what was going on. Overall a really awesome experience and one that opens ones eyes to what really goes on behind the sense. What we don’t see but really do need to appreciate when we are out for a nice meal.

Now it’s time to talk about the food. The excitement of the kitchen experience took nothing away from the spectacular meal we both enjoyed. Let me share what I chose off of the menu and my thoughts. Photos of my friends selections will be shown as well with my thoughts on their presentation.

We started off with appetizers. I chose the Andouille Sausage and Crab Bisque. The color was beautiful and the shredded crab on the surface was elegant. The texture was smooth and creamy but I was a little surprised by the tiny pieces of sausage. While the flavor was wonderful the tiny sausage pieces seem to interrupt the smoothness of the bisque. The shredded crab however was wonderful and much more fitting to me.

My friend had the Grilled Duck Salad with Sesame Orange Dressing served on a bed of Fresh Spinach and Mandarin Oranges. The duck looked wonderfully prepared with a golden outside and tender pink center. The presentation was nice and simple but very elegant.

After the appetizer we were presented with a sorbet coarse of Coconut Limecello. The presentation was very nice, served in a martini style dish. I found the Limecello refreshing and light with just a hint of coconut flavor. As someone who is not a huge coconut fan, I was pleased it was only a hint.

For our main course my friend and I both chose the same dish, the Fall Pork Medley. The presentation was beautiful with colors of Fall. The flavor was wonderful and I really enjoyed the mixture with the caramelized apples, sweet potato and eggplant. All of which complimented the very tender pork. We were both very pleased with our choice.

For dessert we went for different dishes. I went for the Spiced Apple Cider Cake and my friend went for the Strawberry Charlotte. As a huge fan of apple cider it would be very hard to disappoint me with a dessert that includes it. The cakes flavor was exactly what I would want but I was a little disappointed in how dense and heavy the cake was. While it was very good served cold, I would have liked to taste the difference warm and maybe it would not have seemed as heavy. The portion size was a little big for me as well but it didn’t stop me from finishing it. I think it would have been just as appealing in a smaller serving size.

My friends Strawberry Charlotte dessert was very nicely presented. I particularly liked the use of fresh strawberries as garnish. He thoroughly enjoyed it, as it too was all gone.

The whole experience was amazing! I am very thankful for the opportunity to join my friend for lunch and even more thankful that I had the opportunity to do so at the Chef’s Table. The students should be very proud of their work and I tip my hat to all of them involved. I wish them all the best of luck in their pursuit at Adirondack Community College under the Culinary Arts program.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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We are excited to feature this post, because other than our own Jake Van Ness (yes, Jake… You’re ours) it is our first Guest Foodie post in which our guest has sent us out of their own motivation a recipe they tried, with their own photographs and a little story about the recipe.

Juan Pablo Gonzalez and Daniela Rojas are part of The Foodies’ Kitchen community, and they wanted to share this wonderful recipe with us. We would love for more of you to send us your recipes and foodie experiences to make our website more interactive.  Don’t be shy!

This recipe belongs to Tracey Cameron from Calgary in Canada.  She gave it to Juan Pablo and Daniela and told them about how she has been making this cheesecake for years… She has been making it for so long, she forgot where she got the original recipe from.

Juan Pablo is from Guatemala, and is married to Daniela who is from Costa Rica. They are currently living in Canada and were guests at Tracy’s home where they got to try this amazing cake. When they had a taste, they knew this recipe would be perfect to share on The Foodies’ Kitchen because it’s “the best thing we ever ate!”.

They also shared a photograph on themselves, this was taken just before Halloween when they got together to carve pumpkins. Juan Pablo carved his to look like Gallo’s logo, our national beer… ha ha! Daniela’s frog in one of Costa Rica’s rainforest staples. Great pumpkins!

A special thanks to Tracy for sharing her recipe and to Daniela and Juan Pablo for sending it to us and taking these great photographs.

  Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Recipe from:
Tracey Cameron from Calgary, Canada.

Ingredients

Crust:
1 cup crushed chocolate wafers (Oreo baking crumbs)
3 Tbsp melted butter

Filling:
3 pkgs (680 grams) softened cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 squares white chocolate (255 grams)
3 eggs
3 squares semi sweet chocolate (255 grams)

Glaze:
3 squares semi sweet chocolate (255 grams)
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp butter

Procedure:

Crust:

1. Combine crumbs and butter, press firmly into bottom of 9 inch spring form pan.
2. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10 minutes.

Filling:

1. Blend cream cheese and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one.  Add vanilla.
2. Remove half the batter to another bowl.
3. Stir melted white chocolate into this portion.  To remaining batter, blend in melted semi sweet chocolate.
4. Pour dark batter into crumb lined pan followed by the white chocolate mixture; spread evenly.
5. Bake at 425 degrees fahrenheit for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 250 degrees fahrenheit and bake 30-35 minutes more or until centre of cake is just barely firm.
6. Remove from oven and run knife around sides.  Let cool completely before removing sides of pan.

Glaze:

1. Melt chocolate with butter and oil, stirring until smooth.
2. Pour glaze over cake and let it set.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Happy Valentine’s Day from The Foodies’ Kitchen! We’ve put together a collection of out most delicious and lovable recipes for your significant other, friends or family:

Moonstruck Eggs

Chocolate Lava Cakes with Rose Flavored Whipped Cream

Condensed Milk Waffles

Jell-O Spritz Cookies

Guest Foodie: Jake Van Ness & Vanilla Infused Coffee

Chocolate Truffles

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Every year for the Superbowl, Jake gets together with a bunch of friends to watch the game and share food. He prepared this recipe, and split it in half, one with Tequila and one without. Both came out tasting great! He knew about this recipe by Guy Fieri on The Food Network and definitely scored a touchdown with this tasty dessert!

Tequila Bars
Recipe courtesy Guy Fieri for Food Network Magazine
Yield: 16 bars

Ingredients
1 12-ounce box vanilla wafers
1/2 cup pine nuts
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted
1/3 cup tequila
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
5 large egg yolks, plus 2 egg whites
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon sugar
Agave nectar or honey, for drizzling (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Pulse the wafers and pine nuts in a food processor until well ground up.
3. Add the butter and blend until evenly mixed.
4. Set aside 1/4 cup of crumbs; press the rest evenly into a 9-by-13 baking pan.
5. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool.
6. In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the tequila, lime juice, egg yolks and condensed milk.
7. In another medium bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks.
8. Gently fold the egg whites into the tequila mixture.
9. Spread the filling evenly over the crust and bake for 25 minutes; cool.
10. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs on top.
11. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight before cutting.
12. Drizzle with agave nectar, if desired.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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The other day a friend of mine made some coffee. When I took my first sip I was caught by a bit of surprise as it had a very good vanilla flavor to it. Not overly strong but just enough to take the bitterness away from the coffee. He is not a much of a coffee drinker and does not really like how plain coffee tastes so this was his little trick to give it some little flavor. So I thought I would jump on here as a guest foodie and share it with The Foodies Kitchen readers. Kick back and enjoy this coffee!

Vanilla Infused Coffee
Recipe tip by Jake Van Ness

Ingredients:

Ground Coffee
Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1. Using a formula of 1 tbsp of coffee ground for each 6 oz of water, fill your filter with the amount of coffee you want to serve.
2. With the vanilla extract use the formula of 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract for each 4 tablespoon of ground coffee. You can add more if you want a stronger vanilla flavor or less if you want it to be a little more subtle. Start with a small amount and experiment each time with a little more. It doesn’t take much so be careful.

Post Update!:  We realized our instructions were not clear on where the vanilla goes:
You put the vanilla together with your ground coffe before you switch your coffee machine on.  Put in your coffee filter, add your ground coffee and pour vanilla extract on top, close the lid and start your machine.

Serving Suggestions: Add a bit of whipping cream on the top for a little extra! As I know a few of our readers are in the warmer areas, to make vanilla ice coffee all you need to do is to turn off the pot and let it sit for a bit to cool off. Then fill your glass with ice, cream and sugar pouring the coffee over the ice.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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This is one of Jake’s signature dishes. The sauce is the perfect match for the lasagna rolls. You’ll notice that there’s no salt for the sauce. This is because we used Italian flavored breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese, which is salty by itself. You can also replace the Spinach with Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower… any veggie you are in the mood for! Lasagna rolls are a perfect comfort food in these chilly winter nights, and make a great meal for the next day too. They go well with a fresh green salad with a Balsamic Vinaigrette and paired it with a good white wine. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Spinach & Chicken Lasagna Rolls
A Foodies’ Original by Jake Van Ness
Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:
2 handfuls of Spinach
5 ounces Ricotta cheese
6 oz chicken breasts
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
Oregano, Salt and Pepper  to taste
6 Lasagna noodles, cooked, drained
Jake’s Parmesan Sauce (recipe bellow)

Directions:

1. Chop finely the cooked chicken breasts. We’ve found that its much easier using the food processor and give it a few spins there.
2. Mix in the Ricotta Cheese, Oregano and Garlic.
3. Cook the lasagna noodles al dente (this is important so when it bakes later it doesn’t ), drain them out, place on clean towel to dry excess water.
4. Place a spinach leaf at the end of a lasagna noodle and take one tablespoon of the chicken and ricotta mix, place it on the top and roll until conceal.
5. Repeat the same process once again and roll completely. Repeat with all lasagna noodles.
6. Place on a greased baking dish, and pour sauce over rolled noodles and cover.
7. Bake at 375º for 25 minutes
8. Uncover and bake for 3 minutes.
9. To serve, pour remaining sauce over spinach leaves and serve the rolls on top.

Jake’s Parmesan Sauce
A Foodies’ Original by Jake Van Ness
Serving Size: 6

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
8 ounces sour cream
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cups milk
6 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
3 ounces ricotta cheese
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add sour cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth.
3. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps.
4. Stir in Parmesan, Ricotta and pepper.
5. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.
6. Note: If you don’t find Italian breadcrumbs at your grocery store, you can make your own. For each cup of breadcrumbs, add one tablespoon of each: fresh rosemary, oregano, and parsley freshly chopped.

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Traditionally, sushi is fermented fish and rice. Its origin is from Southeast Asia, where it is still eaten in this manner. Literally, sushi means “it’s sour”. Contemporary Japanese sushi, has little resemblance to this type of dish (thank God!), and it has a great variety of combinations using sea food and vegetables. Some can be spicy, others can have fruit in them, such as pineapple or mango, other are more salty, fishy, or pungent. All of them are based on Japanese rice, which after being cooked is mixed with a rice vinegar and sugar blend.

The only special equipment you need to make sushi rolls is a sushi mat or “makisu”, this is made out of bamboo and it is the base for all the ingredients to be rolled in and give it its cylindrical shape. You can find it in any Asian gourmet shop.

Now, regarding the ingredients:  Make sure you buy sushi rice, you will find that the grains are shorter than regular rice.  The things I get when I want to make sushi at home are always a pack of seaweed or “nori”, a tube of wasabi paste, a jar of pickled ginger, Philadelphia cream cheese (not the kind in a tub, but the bricks… so you can slice it), sushi rice, sesame seeds, and make sure you have soy sauce for dipping.

For the filling, you’ll be surprised of how little you need. Just get one unit of any kind of vegetable you need.  You’ll be able to make plenty of rolls with just one avocado, carrot, cucumber, a few lettuce leaves. And get any variety of sea food you want to use.  I always go for crab, tuna and/or salmon.

Making sushi rolls is something we enjoy preparing together with my sister, Petra.  We love it almost as much as we love eating them until we can’t have another bite!  It’s been our thing for years, although the last time we got together to make them, was last December. She’s a med student, so between her schedules and mine, it’s gotten harder to do this more often. But we did get together recently, and had our sushi fest!  It was delicious.  We’ll surely do it again before this year is over.

Oh! and another thing, which is also important. You need a really sharp knife to cut the rolls with, to get a neat slice. Otherwise, even if you have a perfect roll, everything will fall apart.

Sushi Rolls
Ingredients:
Serves 4-6

For the Rice:
3 cups Japanese rice
3 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

6 dry seaweed sheets

Roll Filling:
1/2 8oz package Philadelphia cream cheese
1 carrot, julienned
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 cucumber, seeded and julienned
4 sticks imitation crab meat, julienned
1 pineapple slice, julienned
1/2 avocado, julienned
4  lettuce leaves, julienned
Sesame Seeds

Soy Sauce for dipping
Pickled Ginger
Wasabi

Special equipment:
Sushi mats, for rolling. It is best to have two, if you’re getting help from a second person.

Preparation:

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Guatemalan week cannot be complete if we don’t mention our local beer, Cerveza Gallo. This is the beer we drink for our birthday, our friends’ and family’s birthdays, on weddings, on weekends, (or weekdays… wink, wink!) for the happy times… and the bad times.

The company that produces Gallo was established in 1881 (Castillo Hermanos), back then the streets were made out of gravel and people traveled on carriages carried by horses.  There were a couple of rudimentary beer makers in town, but their quality was less than acceptable. They would ask people if they wanted their beer “with” or “without a fly”.  The flavor of the beer was so bitter, they added sugar to it at their bottling section, and of course, some of the sugar was spilt on the tables attracting a good deal of flies, some of them found their way into the beer bottles and these were sold at a lower price.  (Back then, this was an option… can you imagine?!)

The founders of Castillo Hermanos were aware of this problem so they worked on improving the flavor of the beer to avoid this by tweaking formulations,  improving glass quality of the bottles and making them amber to protect beer from the light and thus maintaining its quality,  a few years later in 1895 the first master brewers from Germany were on board. In 1896 Lager Bier was launched to the market, later on this would become Cerveza Gallo and by 1915 it would receive its first gold medal for quality.

The brand was built at first by using the most important means at that time, which were newspapers, fliers and by painting their logo on the outside of little town shops. Later on they were pioneers in radio and television advertisement. By 1960 the brand sponsored soccer and baseball games as well as cycling events. Cerveza Gallo was part of Guatemalans every day life.  Today they sponsor a public activity with music and food at Christmas when they finish building and lighting the “Arbol Gallo” (Gallo Tree), this has been a tradition for many years.

In 1979 Cerveza Gallo launched its tin can presentation, and continued to win numerous awards for quality. Internationally, Gallo is the first Latin American, and third worldwide beer to receive the Prestige Award, which is given only to those brands who have earned a gold medal 10 years in a row. Presently, it has been selected to enter the American Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame in New York, which is a distinction made only to brands who have become an icon to consumers in their country of origin.

An ice cold Gallo is great as it is, but this recipe we’ll share with you is very refreshing and something that people who aren’t exactly beer lovers will enjoy. A catch phrase that all Guatemalas still remember is:  No estarias mejor con una Gallo? (Wouldn’t you be better with a Gallo?)

Salud!

Source: Cerveceria Centroamericana, Flickr

Our Guest Foodie today is Mariano Blanding, my hubby.  Anyone who has tried his Micheladas can tell you, the man can mix a drink.  We usually have these when we make ceviche, or on very hot weekend days.

Michelada
Serves 1
Recipe by: Mariano Blanding

Ingredientes:

½  8oz can of vegetable juice (preferably with clam juice)
1.5 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
3/4 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 ice cold beer, preferable a Lager
Ice cubes

Procedure:

1. In a beer mug, put about 3-4 ice cubes then pour the vegetable juice, the lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
2. Mix it with a long plastic spoon. Taste it to check the seasoning. You have to be able to taste every ingredient you poured to know you added the right quantities.
3. Add enough beer to fill the mug, and enjoy.

The mug is served alongside the beer, so the drinker can continue pouring it in.

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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A few weeks ago, while I was making breakfast, Jake was watching Paula Deen and her sons on The Food Network (We love everything on TFN and on the Cooking Channel!) and when breakfast was almost done, he came downstairs just to turn on the TV and keep on watching the show. I didn’t realize that, until later that day that we went grocery shopping and he said “Don’t worry about dinner, I got it”- I also had to bake the Mardi Gras cupcakes, so the next morning I could frost them. Then I figured it out! He was going to grill something… While I was baking he was making this amazingly sweet smelling red wine reduction for a glaze. All I have to say is this is an amazing recipe, give it a try! Don’t be scared about the sweetness of the berries… The blue cheese and the wine take care of that!

Grilled Steak and Blue Cheese with Berry Glaze
Recipe from Paula Deen and Sons, The Food Network
Serves 6

Ingredients:

4 beef tenderloin filets, (9 ounce)
Steak Seasoning
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 ½ cups red wine
½ cups water
2 cups sugar
1 pint strawberries, hulled
1 pint raspberries
1 pint blueberries
1 pint blackberries
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Blue Cheese, crumbles

Directions:

1. Preheat a grill to high.
2. Season the fillets with steak seasoning and salt and pepper, to taste.
3. Put on the grill and cook desired doneness.
4. Add the red wine to a medium saucepan over medium heat and reduce it by half.
5. Add the water, then add sugar and berries and cook for about 5 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of cornstarch and stir until thickened.
6. Remove the steaks from the grill to serving dishes and top with sauce and blue cheese crumbles.

© 2010, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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